SOCCER: Tournament champion Dragons have a perfectly good weekend

Tuesday

Pekin boys soccer coach Gus Kormah escaped being doused with ice water, but there's no escaping the fact that the Dragons are Pekin Invitational tournament champions.

They won their three tournament games Friday and Saturday at Coal Miners Park by a combined 15-0 and won the annual tournament for the first time since 2014.

After being presented the tournament championship trophy by Pekin Athletic Director Barry Gurvey and posing for numerous photos, the Dragons had one more task: dump a bucket of ice water over Kormah's head.

Kormah slipped away from Zach Janes' attempted dousing, but he was on the receiving end of several squirts from water bottles.

"It's nice to see the guys have fun," Kormah said.

Winning the tournament title wasn't as easy as it looks.

Pekin (3-2) was missing two of its key players — Shayne Alcantara (ankle) and Alec Nauman (hip) — because of injuries, and goalie Riley Bradshaw (hand) could play only in the field.

That meant players were in different positions and several young players saw game action."Part of being a soccer player is being able to multiple positions," Kormah said.

The Dragons' toughest tournament game -- and what turned out to be the de facto championship game in the four-team, round-robin competition -- was a 1-0 win Friday over Monmouth-Roseville.

Andrew Geier scored an early goal (10:20) and goalie Alex Tarter made four saves in recording the shutout. Monmouth-Roseville goalie Dylon Corrales had three saves.

"We knew we had to win that game if we wanted to win the tournament championship," Kormah said.

Next for the Dragons was an 8-0 win Saturday morning over Illini Bluffs/Farmington.

Geier scored four goals and Bradley Holeman scored twice. J.P. Geier and Jayson Presley also scored. J.P. Geier had two assists and Ryan Bonnette, Aidan Sandoval, Chandler Palladini and Presley each had an assist.